Book review: Charles Sobhraj, the Average and Slippery Bloke With Notions of Being a Super-Criminal
Farrukh Dhondy, who was Charles Sobhraj’s arm’s-length friend for much of his corpse-strewn career, leaves what the reader really wants to know for the epilogue: “How did he manage to seduce so many women ― is he really charismatic and charming?” Dhondy reports that he is “an average bloke”, but “there was something in his gaze which was vaguely compelling”. Elsewhere, he comments on his “joyless” eyes, but declines to play Freud or Desmond Morris.
Hawk and Hyena; reviewed by Pratik Kanjilal
It’s a pity, because Dhondy is one of the very few people who can explain the weird animal magnetism which still draws millions to the Sobhraj canon. He has maintained relations with the serial killer since 1997, when Sobhraj approached him at Channel 4 to get a book published and a movie made on his life. Dhondy introduced him to Giles Gordon of Curtis Brown, who fled rapidly.
Hawk and Hyena; reviewed by Pratik Kanjilal
It’s a pity, because Dhondy is one of the very few people who can explain the weird animal magnetism which still draws millions to the Sobhraj canon. He has maintained relations with the serial killer since 1997, when Sobhraj approached him at Channel 4 to get a book published and a movie made on his life. Dhondy introduced him to Giles Gordon of Curtis Brown, who fled rapidly.
In Hawk and Hyena, Sobhraj says that he wants to write like Jean Genet, but since his life is essentially a series of failed business plans, littered with corpses like found objects in an installation, his book may well have read like a blood-boltered spreadsheet....
